The potential FCC and Justice Department approval of the AT&T/T-Mobile deal...
The potential FCC and Justice Department approval of the AT&T/T-Mobile deal likely wouldn’t have a significant effect on the regulatory review of a combined Dish Network and DirecTV, said Todd Stansbury and John Wyss, lawyers at Wiley Rein. They spoke…
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about the hypothetical Dish/DirecTV deal on a conference call with Credit Suisse analyst Stefan Anninger Thursday. While Dish/DirecTV hasn’t been proposed, new Dish CEO Joseph Clayton told Bloomberg he wouldn’t “discount any possibility” when asked about such a deal, saying he believed the regulatory environment to be more favorable than when the FCC and DOJ blocked such a deal in 2002. The FCC would look at a Dish/DirecTV as totally different than AT&T/T-Mobile, said Stansbury, just as the recent approval of a combined Comcast/NBCUniversal likely doesn’t affect their review of AT&T/T-Mobile, said Stansbury. Combining the DBS companies would be a “tough putt,” but he wouldn’t rule out FCC approval without first looking at the extensive data the companies would likely present to the agency, Stansbury said. The DOJ would also look at each deal on its own merits, said Wyss. While combining the DBS companies would bring pay TV options from three to two in most of the country, AT&T/T-Mobile would take competitors from four to three with other regional players, a major distinction between the deals, he said.